, 1887-06-01
a aeMINIsoENcE oE eMEEson
Personal Impressions of n Friond of the
nlustrionA Observation-Disclosures

PERSONAL Impressions of n Friond of tbs
nlustrious NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
The subject of discussion at the meet
ing of the Starr King Fraternity was
ralph Waldo Emerson, and the principal
attraction was a paper by c. j. Wood
bury, of Oakland, who was an acouaint-
ance and friend of the illustrious philoso-
pher. After giving his personal impress
slons at some length, the speaker consid-
cred the nature of Emerson's influence.
He said:
Il answer without hesitation, to me he
was simply stimulator, awakener. 1t is
my conviction that, like Pascal and
Gurnal and Rousseau and Herder and
Lesstng and Carlyle, he will always be
read by the young rather than the old,
forcing his way, not by reasoning and
syllogisms, but by feeling, imagination
n intuition, and so driving one to new
n strange attitudes of thought and
action. Sometimes, 1 think, this was the
most common if not the only way in
which he looked upon himself. Ger
tainly, L am no prepared to say it was in
Joke that he said Of himself: DO not
count on me as standing anywhere, 1 un-
settle everything This l do know, I
wouldn't let him look even into a cup of
coffee for which l had any respect, for to
me he was a born iconoclast. He brought
the whole existing order with which 1
had been familiar into doubt. He taught
me to have no respect for the old simply
because it was old. And to me ever after
meeting him the old became far too often
the obsolete. Nothing that is, 1 came to
learn, Is entitled to respect simply because
1t is. He smote me thus as in the fore
head at our very first interview. The &C.
casion was the return of an article l had
brought him with his suggestions in
pencil on the margin. He fell to it and
gave me a lecture on composition which
wa a clear departure from everything
the professor of rhetoric had been teacn-
ing us for two years.
"''You shall have no firstly or secondly
or thirdly he said. You shall make no
skeleton or plan. You shall nave no
peroration or e%xordiuIn. What is it YOU
are writing for, anyway? What do you
want to say2 Say it! Out with It'll Don't
lead up to it. Don't try to let your
nearer down from it. That is to be com
monplace. Say it with all the force and
grace you can and stop.
q see you write verses sometimes. l
suppose you read your verses over after
you have written them?'
Certainly
90 suppose, then, after a little they
grow old to your
Indeed they do
And you continue-to write. If, after
a long time, you look any of your lines
over, and you come to one or a success
sion and say to yourself, THAT is good"
it is good, no matter what any one saws
to the contrary, but destroy without de-
lay everything else. Poetry, whether it
comes in dreams or in CLEANS, is always
noble and holy. 1t must serve no sordid
use. 1t is of the above. You must keep
some fact books for poetry. l think that
they are much more nearly related to
poetry than rhyme or rhythm. Study
Greek for expression, but the poetic fact
is half the battle. For your fact books
gather and search everything, but you
shall not read Prescott or Bancroft or
Motley or Montague. Prescott is a
thorough man. Bancroft reads enor-
mously; always understands his subject.
Motley was painstaking and practical,
but their style Stays. Neither of them
lifts himself off his feet. They AVE no
Tilt in Them
81 think now, without betraying pub
fishers confidence, l can venture to give
you a few of MIR. Emerson's expressions
~ ANS AAASAA ~ Al I1lS lIIlC " liz
purpose of these memories. They are
Just as fresh as when they were uttered,
over half a generation ago, although they,
like everything he said, are more easily
understood when read than when listened
to.
Shut your book when your own
thought comes. 1t is of more value than
that of the angel Gabriel.
There is no strong performance
without a little fanatirism on the part of
the performer. When you meet a son of
Kentucky his very presence seems to say:
IF you like me, well; if you don't, look
out for yourself"
81 commiserate any one who is sub
ject to the misery of being overplaced.
What you are stands over you and thun-
ders and denies what you say
"'Did you ever think about the logic
of brain stimulus? Nature supplies her
own 1t is astonishing what she will do
if you will give her q chance. Even the
most tired brain will get relief under the
apple tree on the grass. Later in life a
cup of tea perhaps, but tobacco-what
rude crowbar is this with which to pry
into the delicate tissues of the brain?'
"'In study do not stop until you en-
counter the fact with your own hand.
Search by all shows and learn just how
it now stands. Though the reward Of
the market is in the thing done, the true
reward is inthe doing. '"-Oakland (Cal.)
Enquirer.